The present disclosure relates generally to sensor systems, and more particularly, to a system and a method of transmission control.
Portable electronic devices are prolific and increasingly used outside the proximity of humans. One application includes Active RFID and similar technologies (such as cell phone based triangulation or Wi-Fi/Wi-MAX) often track shipments throughout the freight transportation system or supply chain. Wireless communication circuitry may include RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags when the entity using the tags wants to track the geographical position of the tags through the additional use of GPS (global positioning system) or other location determining circuitry.
If such tags are attached to items being shipped by air, the wireless communication circuitry portion of these tags must be deactivated or otherwise modified while in the presence of operational aircraft. If such deactivation requires human intervention, there is a likelihood that such deactivation (or reactivation) may be overlooked. Thus it would be desirable to have circuitry that can detect a situation such as the presence of operational aircraft and automatically deactivate at least the wireless communication circuitry signal transmission capability while the tag remains in the immediate vicinity of operational aircraft.
Automated deactivation/activation may utilize proprietary technology that incorporates sensor input from a number of sources that are used in algorithms to predict when the device is on an aircraft. The sensors may detect the aircraft radio transponder, an accelerometer, a barometric pressure sensor, or an ultrasonic frequency sensor to detect the noise from the jet engine, and possibly others. These sensed parameters are then used to disable a radio frequency (RF) transmitter to comply with airline requirements. These methods may be relatively effective but are centered on measuring pressure altitude or motion that necessarily relies on aircraft movement.